An Analysis of the Print News - Report Example

Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : xxxxxxxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2014 Introduction Online news and newspapers are without doubt significant sources of information. Despite this, many a time people overlook the aspects and details that make up the whole informative documents. The techniques that are used in producing news within newspapers and the online news are indeed far much complicated. Many designers frequently use various techniques to their advantage while creating while creating publications that are quite engaging and accessible, as supported by Layton (2011). This analysis of the front pages and online pages from two Australian newspapers, The Age and the Herald Sun, will examine some of the techniques which were employed in terms of layout and design hence giving reasons for employing such techniques. An analysis of the print news Story selection and placement in news depends on the reader and whether what is being captured matches the interest of the reader. The story selection and placement, just by looking at the front pages of the prints, gives the main target of the paper. The Herald sun, while focusing on humanitarian issues, draws significant attention to issues regarding conflict and battle. The newspaper magazine in fact begins from a people’s perspective. The Age magazine, on the other hand, seems to give political issues and country governance more weight. An example of what has been headlined in the papers shade some light on this. The herald sun reads ‘Accused sends cash to terrorist, the court told’ This highlights the choice of the paper as totally dependent on the audience’s interest. The Age , likewise, is headline ‘Raids on seven Melbourne Houses open New front in Terror Fight’, others read ‘PM’s top advisor backs ban on burqa’, ‘Tax office not up to the job’. This headlines shows that the paper focuses more on political issues, while issues on governance are also a focus here. The readers of this newspaper may be interested in politics. Characteristics of advertising are also a major factor of selection and placement. The front page of The Age magazine shows advertisements, weather forecast, sports and the day to day business. This is quite important for business men, sports men, sport enthusiasts and travellers. The Herald Sun newspaper does not contain advertisement but rather main story on happenings. This factor again tends to dictate the kind of readership the paper attracts. Those reading The Age newspaper are therefore willing to pay for the advertisement services than those reading The Herald sun. Regarding the images within the analysed two newspapers, it is without a doubt that they are placed to support the story, perhaps create a vivid or clear imagination to the reader. The herald sun, however, focuses on picture and colour more than The Age newspaper. The large and small images on the page of The Herald sun magazine are more of what the lead story of the page highlights. The main image, on the other hand, performs the function of holding the reader longer to the newspaper so that they can read on (Layton, 2011, p.99). The Age newspaper does not focus much on colour and photos. However, it has a big image which gives more insight concerning the main headline of the page. The headlines on a page highly rely on the presentation of the page, the message accompanying it and the images. The headline on The Herald sun ‘Accused sent cash to terrorist, court told’ has been accompanied by an image to support the story. The wordings are small compared to the subtitle that has big wordings to create more impact on the reader. The Age magazine, however, has its headline in bold red colour and mainly written in capital letters, to create impact on the reader and draw much attention. Accompanying it also is a picture to support the story. The story is narrated and from the lead story the reader can already know what the narration is about. Guidelines are provided to the reader in order to know where next to find the story. Words in bold and photo images have a big effect on the presence of print news. Photos and images supporting the story thus support the contexts. Normally it’s a short headline like a two word supported by a big photo that sums up the story. The size of the text also helps on the headline’s impact on the reader. Right below the main headline of the page is the lead story that keeps the reader glued to the paper and directs them on where next to find the story. Force in lines has similarly been used in the images of The Herald Sun. The editor has put the main picture of the article, which is a different story, to face Mark Johnston’s article ‘The Link to have an 80 limit’ which is a lead story by itself. With this the audience is lead to a different story. The main image is a reflection of the terrorist in the main story by Jon Kaila, Mark Schliebs and Shannon Deery. They tell of a pizza worker who is believed to be funding a group of terrorist. Also besides it is the story regarding the links to have an 80 limit. Below the story is another one ‘Eyes for The Blind’ with researchers experimenting some prototypes; blind people so that they are able to regain their sight. The arrangement of the news on this page begins with the image on the lead story. The person in the main image faces another story which is followed by the story of the blinds beneath it. This arrangement tells the audience the order of hierarchy of the story on this page. It also shows the relationship that exists in the particular media. The font size used in the articles of the pages also helps one in distinguishing the hierarchy of news as the headshot and cartoon on the page act primarily to break up what would otherwise be a slab of black text and white space, which is otherwise unattractive to a majority of readers (Smith, 2008). Regardless of this, Newsdesigns.com (2014) highlights that white space is quite effective in dividing elements and drawing attention to particular elements. According to Ross (2012), typography sets the publications tone and voice. The Herald Sun seems to use large font size and colours to highlight and accentuate messages. The Herald Sun has however used small fonts in some instances. The Age newspaper on the other hand has mainly written its headline in small fonts. This is mainly to make subtitle look different and elegant despite it not standing out so much. The main story in the Heralds Sun, which has captured the main image on the front page, seems to have taken a big Part of the page while the rest is shared by other headlines. The Age newspaper, on the contrary, features a small part of the main story and directing the reader where to find it, while the rest of the story covers the remaining space. Captions are another element displayed on the pages of these two newspapers. According to The News Manual (2008), they are normally right above or below a picture on a page. The Herald sun has its caption ‘Sponsor Ajihad’ right below the main image of the page. Comparable to it is the caption of The Age newspaper’ Cash for terror’ which is also below the articles main picture. The reader, by reading the caption, is able to understand what the picture is about. The captions describe what the pictures are and why they are there. The News Manual insists that an image cannot in whatsoever way stand out without the caption (Dowman, 2008). Analysing the Website The web version of The Age and The Herald sun rely on images to break up the provided pages with a layout and to break up the messages in each page. Unlike print news, online news photographs do not emphasize on the headline of the story. Usually they are tightly cropped with head shots. The Herald Sun has been designed in such a way that it has taken advantage of the multimedia through video that has been uploaded on their web page. An example of a video uploaded is that of Darcy Moore becoming Colligwoods next hope (Herald Sun, 2014). The Age’s web page however does not take full advantage of the multimedia. The headlines in the web pages present an important factor. The headline in The herald sun page does not have subtitles and so are those in The Age magazine. They tell it all. The headlines appear several times on the pages. The Herald Sun page has repeatedly headlined on AFL news throughout their page and its precents. The conceptization has been adopted in the articles to attract more viewers of the articles by including what is important and repeating it. Both The Heralds Sun and The Age magazine have used the concept of summarising well. They are precise and to the point. An example is the article by Sue Williams in The Age page where she summarises on Australia’s first serial killer. It has been summarised in such a way that the reader is enticed to read on what happens next. Just by reading the summary without any images, reader is supposed to know what the story is about and get enticed to reading more. The webpage layout has been designed in such a way that the main story is at the top of the page with an image accompanying it. The main story in The Herald Sun ‘Whispers: Chase is on for Roo Levi’ is at the top of the page with a video uploaded in it. Following through the page are other story’s that have been featured. The Age similarly covers its top page with the story of a Zeitgeist girl Lena Dunam, although no video uploads accompanying the story, it has stories that have been featured on the page (The Age Magazine, 2014). Both sites also allow the advertisement of other news on the page. The Age magazine has advertised below its feature story other news on real estate, motoring, holiday rentals and dating among other news. This is important since it easily provides the reader or viewer accessibility to other news. The Herald sun has likewise advertised other news on its site. Included in its ads by Google is news on Law and order, sports, AFL, business news entertainment news and lifestyle. The Herald Sun’s page is thus diverse and puts focus on all news. It has news that covers stories around the network. Advertisements on daily deals and uploads that are available for the ads by Google have also been put for the purposes of emphasis. Conclusion From the above analysis, it is evident that looking at the front pages of both news papers, whether print or online, there are a lot of techniques used. Despite the fact that there seems to be some similarities in a couple of things in The Age and The herald sun, the differences are marked and quite clear. According to the analysis, the front print page of the Herald Sun seems to have put much focus on issues of the welfare of the people. There are stories on arrest of a suspected man who is funding terrorist group. They have also highlighted story on researcher’s attempt to regain the sight of the blind by experimenting on different things. The leadstory on this page takes a bigger part of the front page while explaining to the viewer the story, especially where to read more. The Age newspaper similarly focuses on issues of governance and the government. It tackles stories on tax and the back on the ban of burqa by prime minister’s top advisor. The page puts less focus on colour and images compared to The Herald Sun. The online pages likewise seem to take a different direction. They have headlines that repeat on the page, while summarised in a manner that they do not need to have images for emphasis. Both web pages have short headlines with no subtitles. The headlines however keep changing throughout the pages. The online pages have used other links like videos although this is seen in The Herald sun’s site and not The Age. As such, it is very clear that both online news and print news differ in so many unexpected ways. Bibliography Downman, S., 2008, ‘Writing headlines and captions’, Edit: a guide to layout, design and publication, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Victoria, p. 73-74. Newsdesign.com, 2014, Using white space to divide and conquer, Retrieved 6th October 2014 http://www.newsdesigns.com/newspaper-design/trends-newspaper-design/using-white-space-to-divide-and-conquer/ Layton, R, 2011, ‘Editing pictures’, Editing and news design : how to shape the news in print and online journalism, Palgrave Macmillan, South Yarra, Victoria, pp. 93-173. Ross, A., 2012, 26 must know typography tricks for print and online, Retrieved 6th October 2014 from: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/typography/26-must-know-typography-tricks-for-print-online/ Smith, S., 2008, News Media Bytes; Online journalism, web production and promotion, Retrieved 6th October 2014 from: http://www.newmediabytes.com/2008/03/25/differences-between-web-online-print-headlines/ The Age Weekend, 2014, Good Weekend, Retrieved 6th October 2014 from http://www.theage.com.au/good-weekend The Herald Sun, 2014, Superfooty AFL, Retrieved 6th October 2014 from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl The News Manual, 2008, A professional resource for journalists and media: Captions and Graphics in news picture, Retrieved 6th October 2014 http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals%20Volume%202/volume2_47.htm Read More